Thatís
all thanks to you, Star Citizenís backers. Weíve had a lot of questions about
why we still need to continue crowd funding. The answer is that that money is
letting Star Citizen tackle longer term features and content sooner than we
normally would. To sustain this level of development, we need to keep bringing
in additional funds. Star Citizen is still much less than the other published
backed AAA games that have similar levels of ambition (some would even say a
little less :-) ) like GTA V, Watch Dogs or Destiny.

We know that Star Citizen is an incredibly ambitious project, after all its
basically several high fidelity AAA games all rolled into one; a MMO Space Sim,
a First Person Shooter, a rich Single Player story and a fully-fledged Trading
and Economy game. Iím pretty sure this level of ambition is why the majority of
you backed. If I had pitched Star Citizen to a typical publisher, told them I
wanted all these features and wanted to make it just for a PC I would have been
laughed out of the room. (Of course, you all showed publishers that a AAA space
sim for the PC is no laughing matter!)

Our plan is to scale the team based on the crowd funding, with the goal to be
able to double down on development wherever itís possible to do so. If we need
more artists to produce additional ships, weíd like to be able to hire them. Or
if we need more engineers to get a head start on some longer term technical
issue before it blocks other parts of development, we want that option! Itís the
new players hearing about Star Citizen and Arena Commander for the first time
and jumping in as well as sales like the M50 that enable us to continue to chase
our shared dream of the BDSSE to the highest fidelity. So thank you for your
support.

winston149 wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:19:Reading through the comments here, I'm kind of surprised at most. Just trolling for fun? I've followed the development of SC closely, and as far as I can tell, it seems to be pretty well on track. The core space sim technology is obviously there, and it's actually pretty fun to play around with all by itself, frankly.

On track? Yeah, it's on track to run right off a cliff.

SC has got to be one of the most ambitious games every thought up, and it is being managed by a man with a horrendous track record in delivering on his proposed ideas.

Will this game ever be finished? In my opinion, it probably won't be as far as fulfilling all of the proposed features it is supposed to support. More than likely there will be several module releases similar to the Arena Commander to keep people on the hook. They will all be buggy, and will need to be updated and tweaked and won't support all of the ever-expanding features, but people will be getting 'something' for their money.

In the end, the inability of the CryEngine to scale to meet the needs of the game will be blamed for its failure, and Chris Roberts will have the gall to ask for more money in order to create a game engine from scratch.

This comment was edited on Aug 6, 2014, 11:22.

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishfull thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.-Robert Heinlein

[VG]Reagle wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 21:35:Good morning. In less than an hour, I will join others from around the world supporting Star Citizen. And together we will be launching the largest crowd sourced aerial battle in the history of mankind.

"Crowd Sourcing."

That word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today we are once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from your very right to support the games you want to play.

You see we are fighting for our freedom to support Star Citizen. And should we win the day, then this game will no longer be known as an American game, but as the game that the world declared in one voice: "We will support this game with our donations!" We will not let it vanish without a fight! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate Star Citizen!

Reagle, are you selling your meds to buy online internet spaceships? You need your meds more than a Horent.You know the drill, just pop the pill.

Good morning. In less than an hour, I will join others from around the world supporting Star Citizen. And together we will be launching the largest crowd sourced aerial battle in the history of mankind.

"Crowd Sourcing."

That word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today we are once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from your very right to support the games you want to play.

You see we are fighting for our freedom to support Star Citizen. And should we win the day, then this game will no longer be known as an American game, but as the game that the world declared in one voice: "We will support this game with our donations!" We will not let it vanish without a fight! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate Star Citizen!

Zanthar wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:27:I don't think you can judge whats going on behind the scenes in production from just a few press blurbs. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Chris Roberts has an impressive track record of delivering some awesome games back in the day.

If he doesn't deliver with SC, his career in the gaming industry will be over for good. He will lose respect and all of his achievements will become worthless. There will be no recovery from failure since he took $50mil directly from the pockets of gamers. If that's not enough motivation for him NOT to fail then he'll deserve the brutal end to his career that he will get.

See, but that's the thing. He doesn't. He has a history of Molyneuxism. He talks a lot of shit and doesn't actually, really deliver. All of the success of the WC series happened in spite of him, not because of him. That's why the plug was pulled on it to begin with.

Unlike many crowdfunded games which scream scam these days, I don't believe for a second this is one. However, I don't believe he's an actual, real leader. Visionary maybe, but delivering on everything on-time and on-budget? Fat chance. Then all the evasive snake oil salesmen bullshit not spelling out the MP - sorry MMO part of the game - which is going to end up P2W, probably with monthly fees to boot. That's the real shitstorm I'm looking forward to. And I'll be surprised if the SP portion of the game is any great shakes.

Zanthar wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:27:I don't think you can judge whats going on behind the scenes in production from just a few press blurbs. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Chris Roberts has an impressive track record of delivering some awesome games back in the day.

He also has the track record of Freelancer, which he worked on for 6 something years, promising everything, until MS finally said "This is never getting done", and kicked him out the door.

If he doesn't deliver with SC, his career in the gaming industry will be over for good. He will lose respect and all of his achievements will become worthless. There will be no recovery from failure since he took $50mil directly from the pockets of gamers. If that's not enough motivation for him NOT to fail then he'll deserve the brutal end to his career that he will get.

Oh, I don't think anyone has any doubts that CR wants this game to be made, and wants it to succeed beyond all his wildest dreams, and that he in no way, shape or form wants to fuck it up. However, on the flipside, he has now made so many promises, and they're trying to cram so much stuff into this one game, that failure is absolutely a possibility no matter how much he struggles against it.

That said, as long as people apparently keep putting a million bucks into the game every month, he can keep his 200 odd developers plugging along quite merrily.

SpectralMeat wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 09:43:I kind of lost interest in this project and the amount of money it collected.It is awesome to show off the power of PC gamers when it comes to funding to shove it in the console companies face, but at the same time I really wish he would focus on making the game instead of all the other crap he does, like those web tv things and commercials and new ship designs etc.Sure the new ships are awesome but until you have a game to play those in it is kinda ass backwards to work on those imo.Just like you have to build a house from the foundation up not from the roof down.

Hmm. When you make a game, a lot of things are being made a the same time. They don't just make a single ship and then move on to creating gameplay... Everything happens at the same time. As for the movies and stuff, that's a completely different source of funding. It's being funded by the subscribers who shell some money each month.

I guess it wasn't obvious from my comment.I was talking about time management, and effort being put into the game itself rather than the fluff.They don't even know if the CryEngine will be able to handle all the shit they want to pour into this game but hey they have 2 gazillion space ships designed and modeled already. Sure design some ships say 5-6 or whatever but have a stable base game running before add more stuff into it.These guys go the opposite direction. They have a working toilet and doorknob in your space ship but will the CryEngine handle the scale of this game? Who cares. Let's make another pretty commercial movie for a new ship.

Ok. Well, the modelers aren't going to just stand there and do nothing all day. I'm guessing that making the ships that people paid for is a good investment of their time. Making the engine work is more of the work of programmers. I wouldn't worry about the Cryengine being able to handle it. That's why you hire programmers, so that they can do their job and develop things so that they work...

Like I said, the commercials are a side thing that don't drain resources from the main game. I mean it's a video, not 3d modeling or programming.

To reiterate, they aren't only working on doorknobs, it's just that that's easy to do and show right now.

This is why most games have a ramp-up phase with smaller teams focusing on core features, and then build out the art team when there stuff is actually needed. Rather than getting a bunch of artists together to do work(tm) and gobble up money for ages, when no one is sure how exactly that art is going to fit into the bigger picture yet.

This whole thing is upside down, and every press release and bit of information that comes out of the project just makes that more clear.

DangerDog wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:17:Hello Star Citizen, are you not entertained!?

Even if this project fails I think I'll have gotten my $45 worth of backer pledge out of all the drama this has created.

In other news I've somehow managed to log 22 hours into the combat test and beta version of Elite Dangerous only playing a few hours at night. That said I would recommend people to hold out for the release of Elite as it's really just a shell of core game functions that they have implemented.

I don't know how you roll so many disparate game types into a single game effectively but the end result will be interesting either way. That said I have not put a dime into this and will not touch it until at least one of those things is finished.

winston149 wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:19:Reading through the comments here, I'm kind of surprised at most. Just trolling for fun? I've followed the development of SC closely, and as far as I can tell, it seems to be pretty well on track. The core space sim technology is obviously there, and it's actually pretty fun to play around with all by itself, frankly.

The negativity is just bizarre. Based on the information published so far, and the state of the tech as I have seen it myself, I expect a beta test period probably next summer or autumn, and physical copies shipping on conclusion of that. What's the problem?

Star Citizen just feels more and more like Battlecruiser with way more feature creep. For the next few years or more, it's going to be entertaining to keep watching this.

Have you heard of Line of Defense? It's comparable to SC and I think there is a very obvious difference in quality. I think everyone would be right to be upset if SC was looking like Line of Defense does in the latest video clips.

Zanthar wrote on Aug 5, 2014, 14:27:I don't think you can judge whats going on behind the scenes in production from just a few press blurbs. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Chris Roberts has an impressive track record of delivering some awesome games back in the day.

If he doesn't deliver with SC, his career in the gaming industry will be over for good. He will lose respect and all of his achievements will become worthless. There will be no recovery from failure since he took $50mil directly from the pockets of gamers. If that's not enough motivation for him NOT to fail then he'll deserve the brutal end to his career that he will get.

He would make a great used car salesman, so he can always fall back on that.

I don't think he'll ever be without money as long as rendered images of space ships sell as well as they seem to.

I don't think you can judge whats going on behind the scenes in production from just a few press blurbs. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Chris Roberts has an impressive track record of delivering some awesome games back in the day.

If he doesn't deliver with SC, his career in the gaming industry will be over for good. He will lose respect and all of his achievements will become worthless. There will be no recovery from failure since he took $50mil directly from the pockets of gamers. If that's not enough motivation for him NOT to fail then he'll deserve the brutal end to his career that he will get.

Reading through the comments here, I'm kind of surprised at most. Just trolling for fun? I've followed the development of SC closely, and as far as I can tell, it seems to be pretty well on track. The core space sim technology is obviously there, and it's actually pretty fun to play around with all by itself, frankly.

The negativity is just bizarre. Based on the information published so far, and the state of the tech as I have seen it myself, I expect a beta test period probably next summer or autumn, and physical copies shipping on conclusion of that. What's the problem?

Even if this project fails I think I'll have gotten my $45 worth of backer pledge out of all the drama this has created.

In other news I've somehow managed to log 22 hours into the combat test and beta version of Elite Dangerous only playing a few hours at night. That said I would recommend people to hold out for the release of Elite as it's really just a shell of core game functions that they have implemented.